Mixdown in -6db

[bred]

Hello everybody, I am so sorry to ask such a stupid question, but I have never understood technical language or whatever, I make music since 7 years, and now that for me things are getting serious, label managers ask me to send them my track with the "mixdown in -6db". I really don't know what to do, even if I am sure it will be a very stupid thing... Thank you in advance

[selig]

If they said at "-6dB", they are not giving you enough information. Do they mean -6 dBFS, -6 dBTP, or what?
I would guess it's -6 dBFS, which you can achieve by using the master fader to lower the level on the Big Meter in Peak (or VU + Peak) mode so you don't hit higher than -6 dBFS. The problem, and one reason I designed Selig Gain, is you have to closely watch the meter for the entire song. With Selig Gain (and any meter the has a peak hold function), you simply play the track, note the highest level, then lower the master fader by an amount that results in a total of -6 dBFS.
For example, if you play the track and the highest peak is -3 dBFS, lower the master fader by 3 dB. Make sense?

[nooomy]

Hello everybody, I am so sorry to ask such a stupid question, but I have never understood technical language or whatever, I make music since 7 years, and now that for me things are getting serious, label managers ask me to send them my track with the "mixdown in -6db". I really don't know what to do, even if I am sure it will be a very stupid thing... Thank you in advance

Have the track peak around -6db. They Want the peak dB to be low so there is headroom for their mastering

[Kalm]

It's either AT -6 dB, no higher than -6 dB, or reduced -6 dB. Either way its simply to have headroom to avoid clipping as nooomy stated. As long as it's not clipping digital reconstruction doesn't change. If you look at film delivery specs (like Discovery Channel) they have certain criteria on how loud things can get. I bet your engineers are doing something similar for quality control.

[pongasoft]

You can look at the VAC-6 plugin (VST https://pongasoft.com/vst/VAC-6V.html or RE https://pongasoft.com/rack-extensions/VAC6.html although the VST is more recent). It was kind of designed to answer your question.

You use this device on master out and essentially the soft clipping line (which is by default set at -6dB but can be changed) will show you when your track goes beyond -6dB (orange) and as a result the gain levels need to be lowered. You can either fiddle with your various gain level on individual tracks or use the gain knob on the device itself. The idea is that when you play your entire track from start to finish it should never see any orange...

Yan

[bred]

Thank you everyone for your answers, really, I am appreciating them very much, I'll let you know if everything will be ok with your suggestions